1. Field
The application relates generally to packaging and, more particularly, to sensing and displaying product information associated with estimating a critical date, or dates, for a product having a predictable life expectancy or maturity.
2. Description of Related Art
Numerous consumer products are sensitive to time, environment, and handling. The notion of critical date(s) for an item relates to anything of importance and consequence happening to the product itself, defining or altering usage consideration. As general examples; a comestible may be no longer pleasing or safe to eat, or may have an expected maturity time-frame, namely, becoming ready for optimal consumption; an item having a limited life-span may no longer be potent enough to be effective; or the like. As some specific examples: wine is best kept a constant moderate temperature and oriented horizontally; meat and some dairy products need substantially constant refrigeration; fruits and vegetables are subject to both environmental storage conditions from the time of harvest—namely, temperature and humidity—and damage by rough handling (“G-loads”); photographic film can be affected by radiation and temperature and humidity changes; batteries have a limited shelf life; and the like.
Generally, products having such sensitivities are sometimes labeled regarding a specific factor relevant to a decision to purchase the individual item. For example, some products are date-stamp packaged so that the consumer can determine freshness. However, most manufacturers or suppliers are very conservative in their estimates, assuming some average degree of mishandling and perishability into these type of product warning calculations. Thus, this date-stamp labeling is an error-prone test for current product condition and also can lead to waste when a safe product is summarily discarded as expired. Some products bear handling instructions, which the consumer can only presume that the shipper has followed.
For the main part, consumers now use a combination of imprecise proxy measures to draw conclusions about a product. They can inspect the packaging for damage; they can try to detect signs of product decay, e.g., odor; they can notice current condition, e.g., refrigerated; they can take into account the reputation of the retailer, shipper, and suppliers. However, none of these measures give any accurate information about the actual previous handling of the product since it has left its point of origin.
Some products are re-inspectible and re-certifiable as to current condition; e.g., fire extinguishers which have a charge (pressure) gauge; some batteries are packaged with a “tester” to determine if they are still charged. These mechanisms provides a slightly better indicator for the consumer as to current condition. However, there are few, if any, labels providing dynamically generated historical data which would be of interest to the consumer; e.g., “what is the travel history of this wine?” In other words, in these current condition mechanisms there is no record visible to the consumer that the product has been handled appropriately in transit from the producer to the present time, perishability and probable expiration.
There is a need for a system including a sensing apparatus with display capability which provides the history of at least one measurable factor associated with a specific product that affects the characteristics of that product. The apparatus should have a data display which assures the consumer that a packaged product has been handled appropriately according to certain measurable parameters over its life since the package was sealed. The apparatus should help enhance consumer satisfaction and safety. The apparatus should give consumers accurate and detailed information about the previous handling of the product, about the current status of the product, and about any predicted critical date(s). The apparatus may even provide a “conclusion” about the status of the product; e.g., current safety for consumption, use, or the like.